BLACKBERY 8900 - BEAUTIFUL (Blackberry Curve 8900)

Member Name: gemmylouise

Product:	Blackberry Curve 8900
Date:	14/11/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wide range of apps / Emails on the go!

Disadvantages: Can be complicated

BLACKBERRY CURVE 8900

The Blackberry used to be for business owners or professional workers on the go, it has become a popular phone for the average person! I used to own a Blackberry Pearl and have now upgraded to the Blackberry Curve! I originally bought mine on an Orange pay as you go, I went onto their dolphin rewards which was great as when I topped up £10 I got unlimited access to facebook, bebo, myspae and msn whilst also giving me 300 free texts. Unfortunately the orange signal didn't work when I moved house so I had to then buy on an O2 contract, it's more expensive but I had to buy it after owning a Blackberry you won't want to go back to a standard mobile because of the great features I will go on to tell you about.

Looks
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From the front the phone is super sexy with curves to the corners. It is edged in a chrome strip which glistens in the light and makes it look that bit more sophisticated and modern! The screen is a really good size, after owning the pearl I can see a huge improvement in the quality. The extra size makes browsing the web and writing emails much easier. The sreen resolution is particularly impressive and is compared to the i phone. Pictures and video quality is crystal clear!

The side view is amazingly slimline edged in the chrome again. It is infact the slimest Balckberry at only 11.5mm thick! On the left handside you have a chrome menu key. I really like this as you an pick a screen, app or page to assign to it for quick access. I have mine set to google search for when I want to access the internet quickly. The right hand side has an ear phone jack which is rarely a fullsize 3.5mm so you can use your own headphones! It also has the charger outlet, chrome menu keys, and another quick menu button. I have the right hand quick menu key set to take me straight to camera mode. I think you should definately choose camera as one of your quick function keys as this saves alot of time when you see a picture opportunity! The top of the phone has two hidden keys which took me a while to find! If you press down on the left hand side it locks and unlocks the mobile, if you press down on the right hand-side it puts the phone in standby mode. Standby mode is good to save on your battery life. It is a good idea to always lock your phone incase it falls into childrens hands or incase you lean on it by mistake!

The back is very scratch resistant. On the back panel there is the famous blackberry logo with piecesof chrome. Mine have all fallen off so they couldn't have been attached very well. I do keep mine in a leather case so I image sliding it in and out have caused this to happen. I would definately advise a leather case, the screen on my first blackberry got scratched within a week from a nail file in my bag!

Size
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The first thing you notice about 'The Curve' is that it is noticeably bigger than the older version 'The Pearl'. I was rary about buying a larger sized phone but it fits in your hand perfectly and the features it holds wouldn't be done justice on a smaller screen.

Keyboard
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There are 4 function keys underneath the screen symetrically designed with the must have tracker ball in the middle. The left hand key is the green phone to answer calls, the next key is the blackberry symbol menu, the tracker ball is in the middle, (you can change the rate of speed and sound this makes) the next key is the back button and the final right hand key is the red phone to end calls. I personally think the keys are very well laid out and extremely easy to use.

The Pearl only had 5 buttons across a row with two letters per key while the curve is the little bit larger to hold the full qwerty keyboard. I really like the qwerty keyboard it makes typing emails and sms messages a lot quicker. The keys are square with rounded edges making them really easy to use. The numbers are towards the left hand side of the keys, if you are in email, word, sms etc then you have to press the alt button and then the key for it to display the number, this can be a little annoying. The only disadvantage I would make about the keyboard is the positioning of the enter key, it is right next to the delete key so it can be very easy to select the wrong one!

Menu
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If you press the blackbery symbol menu key your phone will light up showing your menu. You can chose to have either 6 chosen keys along the bottome of your screen or the screen full of keys. I chose to have my main 6 along the bottom so I can see my wallpaper image! The 6 main keys I have chosen are facebook, msn, internet browser, sms, and my two email accounts because these are the keys I want to access the most. The menu is extremely clever and easy to move everything around and cutomise to your own needs. You can create your own folders etc.

A disadvantage I found with this phone is that with the menus being so complex I couldn't even work out how to change my message ringtone, this is a common problem because it is accessed through the profiles menu and not the main menu!

Applications
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The blackberry apps that you can download are very impressive with their being a wide range for you to customise your mobile. The phone comes loaded with DOC (Word), XLS (Sheet to go) and PPT (Slideshow). I only use word to open any attachments that get emailed to me!

The blackberry messenger is very much like msn, everybody has a blackberry pin with their mobile. you can add your friends, create a name and status and chat to them. It's free to use so better than texting! The only thing with this is you can obviously only use it if you both have a blackberry.

Other apps I ahve include facebook, twitterberry, myspace, yahoo, googlemaps and msn. These are really the only ones I use although my friend is obsessed with the music apps and games! The phone has great protentional for you to keep adding to it to improve and personise it to your needs. It has 256mb of memory loaded and is of course expandable should you need it!

Camera / Video / Music / Voice Clips etc
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There are lots of entertainment values to this model. You can store music and send receive voice clips which can be fun. The camera is a 3.2mega pixel which is good quality for a mobile phone! It has auto focus so you don't have to worry if your hand is a little shakey! It also has a flash although when your battery gets to one bar this won't work! You can also record videos, the ones I have done so far have excellent sund quality. There are a large choice of tones loaded although I personally like recording my favourite song and settign that as my ringtone!

Overall
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A packed feature mobile phone to keep you connected on the go. Very sexy styling, average weight weighing in at 110grams. The only downside I heard is that it has no 3G although I can't tell as it has all the other Wifi etc. The blackberry apps that you can download are very impressive with their being a wide range for you to customise your mobile. My favourites are facebook, twitterberry, myspace, googlemaps and msn. These are really the only ones I use although my friend is obsessed with games! The phone has great protentional for you to keep adding to it to improve and personise it to your needs. I love the fact that I can get my emails direct to my blackberry wherever I am and reply instantly also msn is essential for when I'm on the go to keep in touch with my friends.

Thanks for reading!
Gemmy
: )

Summary: Beautiful looking phone with everythign you could need!